A conventional wheelbarrow comprises a bucket, a chassis with two arms forming shafts, foot rests, and a bearing system at the front of the wheelbarrow. Such wheelbarrows are generally used for the manual transport of materials. Conventional wheelbarrows are particularly used to transport a material which must be spread over a surface requiring application. For example, a classic wheelbarrow may be used for transporting gravel which must be spread on a freshly tarmacked road. When the material is brought close to the surface requiring the coating, an individual can then tip up the bucket of the wheelbarrow so the contents are emptied onto a section of the surface requiring the application and then spread the material over the surface using an additional tool such as a rake or a spade. This is often difficult for the individual to carry out as the weight of the bucket filled with material is often very heavy.
Some conventional wheelbarrows facilitate the task of tipping the bucket for the user as it comprises a system for assisting with tipping the bucket at the front of the wheelbarrow thanks to a handle fixed to the back of the bucket and at least one gas spring exerting pressure under the back of the bucket. The technique of spreading using this wheelbarrow still requires a large amount of time, particularly to spread the material after having turned it onto a section of the surface requiring an application.
Another method of spreading material is to bring the wheelbarrow close to the spreading zone and then, using an additional tool such as a spade, to spread the pellets bit by bit over the zone requiring the application. This spreading method has the disadvantage of taking a large amount of time and being less precise in terms of controlling the amount of material spread per unit area.
Another conventional wheelbarrow is a hand-operated snow shovel for sweeping snow from a surface. The snow shovel comprises a chassis to which two arms are attached for handling the snow shovel by hand and at least one wheel for moving the snow shovel. The snow shovel particularly comprises a dispersing container mounted on the chassis, said container comprising an opening in the lower zone with an adjustable flap through which a material contained by the dispersing container may flow at an adjustable rate. The snow shovel also comprises a distribution plate under the opening of the container rotatably supported around a vertical axis and a rotation mechanism of the distribution plate mounted so that when said at least one wheel turns, the distribution plate is rotated around its vertical axis. When the snow shovel moves forwards or backwards, the material which is flowing from the opening of the lower zone of the distribution container thus falls onto the rotating distribution plate and is projected perpendicularly to the axis of rotation of the plate.
Such a snow shovel device is not suitable for spreading a material precisely. In fact, spreading by projection perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the plate when said plate is rotating seems imprecise because it does not allow the spreading to be channeled in one direction. It is therefore difficult to carry out precise and homogeneous spreading on surfaces requiring an application and particularly comprising corners defined by the boundaries of said surface, such as the raised edges of earthworks or a path.